“There’s someone at the Jewish community center with a gun,” my husband said on the phone. His voice was strained. My mind raced to grasp the meaning; had someone been shot?

Frightened by the phone call, I rushed to the Jewish community center (JCC) where our two sons were at summer day camp. The radio news said that 6- and 8-year-old boys, the ages of our boys, had been shot. I panicked that my sons were gone on a morning when I had left so early for work that I hadn’t kissed them goodbye or told them that I loved them. It was hard to breathe.

Later, I would learn that a white supremacist shot five people at the JCC; one of the injured was my 6-year-old son. My child, the picture of innocence, was targeted by a hate-filled, mentally ill man with easy access to powerful firearms and an arsenal of ammunition. After unleashing a barrage of 70 rounds in seconds at the JCC, the shooter cold-bloodedly murdered Joseph Ileto, a Filipino-American postal worker who was delivering mail.

It happened 15 years ago, on Aug. 10, 1999. My son, now 21, has joined the growing legion of survivors of gun violence. It’s not a fraternity he wanted to be a part of, but once you’re in, membership is lifetime. Our family and friends are among the millions who suffer the collateral damage of gun violence. But we’re the lucky ones, because our loved one survived. In the United States of America, where life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence, my son was shot at day camp, and I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones.

Since that awful day 15 years ago, roughly 1.5 million Americans have been shot, and about 450,000 of them have died. Horrific mass shootings like Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora and Newtown are etched into our psyches. The litany of names and places causes us to shake our heads and reflect, but these high-profile shootings are the outliers. Most shootings don’t make the news. They are part of the daily drumbeat in America of about 275 people hit by bullets every single day: the depressed teen who knows where his dad’s gun is kept, the inquisitive toddler who picks up a gun left carelessly on a table, the disgruntled employee seeking revenge, the argument that turns deadly in the presence of a gun, the domestic abuser who fires his gun in a drunken rage, the frightened homeowner who mistakes her husband for an intruder, and the Independence Day reveler who stupidly fires a gun into the air. Over and over and over again. Prayers have been offered, and tears have been shed, but what has been done to prevent this madness? Why do we allow this to continue to occur in our communities?

Why hasn’t the demand for change been loud enough?

The JCC shooting provides a textbook example of the many flaws in our weak national firearm policy. The JCC shooter could not legally buy firearms but he could easily get them through private sales that did not require background checks, and others could buy them for him. He had a military-style weapon with high-capacity magazines that allowed him to rapidly spray fire dozens of rounds. He circumvented California’s strong gun laws by bringing his arsenal from another state. Because the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms was hamstrung by Congressional restrictions, it was unable to effectively monitor gun dealers for trafficking and other unscrupulous practices such that one of the JCC shooter’s guns came from the same gun shop that supplied the gun used in another high-profile shooting.

To reduce the carnage caused by gun violence, we have to make it harder for dangerous people to get guns. We know that background checks, currently required for purchases from federally licensed firearm dealers, have stopped about 2 million convicted felons and other dangerous people from acquiring guns through legal channels. We also know that unregulated private transactions without background checks occur about 6 million times per year. Some states, like California, require background checks for all purchases, but weak laws in other states put us all in jeopardy.

We need a federal law that requires a background check for every single firearm transfer. People with nothing to hide know that background checks make sense. We shouldn’t let questionable people buy guns from the trunk of a stranger’s car. We shouldn’t let unregulated firearms marketplaces exist on the Internet. We shouldn’t let wayward family members give guns to their felon relatives. Public opinion polls repeatedly show that the vast majority of Americans want a fully functional and comprehensive background check system. Politicians know it, too, but too many of them fear the gun lobby more than they value human life.

The fight for sensible gun laws cannot be left on the shoulders of grieving families and victims. We are all complicit by not holding our elected officials accountable for legislating solutions that are within our reach. Find out if your elected officials stand up to the gun lobby and support expanded background check legislation. If they don’t, it’s time to send them packing and elect someone who will. Don’t wait until you receive one of those frightening phone calls that will change your life forever. Then, it’s too late.